The thing is, Hopper said this in 1982. This was a time when, to keep stretching the analogy, it wasn't hard to find a second ox, but yokes were still flaky bleeding edge technology that mostly didn't work very well in practice.
One potentially more likely solution back in the day was to just accept the job was going to take a while. This would be analogous to using a block and tackle. The ox can do the job but they're going to pull for twice as long to get it done. Imagine pulleys cost $10, but a second ox costs $1000 and a yoke costs $5000, and getting the job done in less time is not worth $5,990 to you.
One potentially more likely solution back in the day was to just accept the job was going to take a while. This would be analogous to using a block and tackle. The ox can do the job but they're going to pull for twice as long to get it done. Imagine pulleys cost $10, but a second ox costs $1000 and a yoke costs $5000, and getting the job done in less time is not worth $5,990 to you.